Dyke last week pitched his intention to introduce a division for 10 Premier League B teams, placed into the English football pyramid between League Two and the Conference.

And while the plan has been widely rejected by the football community, Manchester City reserves manager Vieira believes The FA are already behind rival nations and, as such, a competitive division for emerging youngsters must be implemented.

"It is time for the English game to move forward because we are late compared to the other nations on developing young players,” Vieira said.

"The B teams are something we have to do. They're something we have to think about because if we want more English players and to give the national manager a big range of players to choose from then we have to through with introducing B teams.

"We need to challenge the youngsters. They need experience to play what I call man's football.

"When you look at Spain, Holland, France or Germany, they have a B team and they produce quite a few players and I think as a nation we are quite a bit behind in doing that."